


Once More With Feeling

by semaphoredrivethru



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pre-Slash, Time Loop, Well - Freeform, abuse of latin, ish, lovers-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-01-01
Updated: 2002-01-01
Packaged: 2018-11-13 00:32:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11173257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semaphoredrivethru/pseuds/semaphoredrivethru
Summary: Snape came to awareness immediately, just as he had the first time. Harry was squirming off his lap, and through a haze that was not entirely related to the sudden restart of the time loop, Snape wondered how it was that he had managed to land with a lapfull of student after coming through with the portkey. Or how he had managed to get said portkey jammed between his hip and his tailbone. At least it distracted him from the fact that Harry seemed incapable of extricating himself without rubbing Snape in a way that would be considered the right way if Harry weren't his teenaged student.





	Once More With Feeling

**Author's Note:**

> How did I miss reposting this?? I had to use the Wayback Machine just to find it! This one even predates my first LJ, it's that old.
> 
> Written as part of Wave 3 of the From Dusk Til Dawn HP/SS at http://www.kardasi.com/HPSS/Wave3 . I was inspired by challenge #138: Two enemies, trapped in Voldemort's dungeons together, awaiting their execution. With an hour left to live, how do they decide to spend it? (of course a rescue is allowed before the execution). (ProfSnapeFan)
> 
> Lexicon:  
> Ligare - bind, connect, join, tie, tie up  
> Plenus Orcus - plenus: complete, full. orcus: death.  
> Tempus Fugit - time flies
> 
> Everything I need to know about Latin I learned from travlang's English-Latin Dictionary.

Dark. So very dark.

For the space of a few heartbeats, Harry wildly wondered if his vision had finally given out on him, and he had become completely blind. But then his consciousness reasserted itself, and Harry opened his eyes.

The smooth stone walls shimmered in light cast from a single torch somewhere out of Harry's fuzzy line of sight. Large rectangles bearing unfamiliar, and thanks to his missing glasses, unreadable names and dates covered the walls, and a few were even graced with vases holding the dry remnants of flowers. Harry shuddered with foreboding as he sat in the cold black marble room; he was inside a mausoleum.

Cradling his throbbing head in his hands, Harry tried to remember how he had gotten there.

He and Professor Snape had been standing in the middle of the Quidditch pitch. Less than an hour away from dinner, and the sun was just beginning to set, they were there to practice some of the more complex defense charms Harry had been learning during their private lessons over the past few weeks. His wand drawn, Harry was already smiling at the thought that he would have only this first go to try and knock the sneering Potions master flat on his arse. It would have served Snape right, after the horrible things he had been saying over the years, and nearly all of them about Harry's abilities and lineage. And since there were only two months left to Harry's seventh and final year, he was unlikely to get such a perfect opportunity to catch Snape off-guard again.

There had been a high-pitched whistling sound, and something dropped to the ground between them. Curious as always, Harry had gone to find out what it was - much to Snape's sputtered irritation.

"Honestly, Mr. Potter," he said, joining Harry beside the object. "Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Curiosity killed the Gryffindor?'"

"It's an hour glass," Harry said, ignoring Snape. "And it's still intact. I wonder why it didn't break?"

Without a second thought, Harry reached out for it, only dimly aware of the shouted "Potter!" and Snape's vise-like grip on his shoulder as a disturbingly familiar force grabbed him by the belly button, yanking him far away from the Quidditch pitch and Hogwarts.

The last thing Harry remembered thinking, before he hit his head on something very hard and passed out, was that Snape was probably right, and he was never going to learn to think before doing.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry threw his head back, hoping to hit it against the wall and thus knock himself back out. Instead, he came in contact with something vaguely soft and cloth-covered that cursed softly at the impact.

"If you please, Mr. Potter," Snape said very close to Harry's ear, "get off of my lap. My legs are beginning to fall asleep, my back is in need of stretching, and I am sitting on something most inconveniently shaped."

Harry muttered an apology, and scooted away just far enough so he could see Snape without having to move his eyes too much. His head still hurt like the devil, and on top of that his scar was burning painfully. Without thinking, he winced and rubbed at the scar.

Snape reached for something behind his back, and drew out the previously mentioned object he had been sitting on. Scowling when he recognized it as the hourglass-turned-portkey that had brought them there, he angrily tossed it at Harry.

"Here," he spat, "since you wanted to look at it so badly."

Harry didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. Hiding behind the fringe of hair that escaped the small queue he had been wearing it in since nearly the start of the school year, Harry inspected the hourglass, still surprised that there wasn't so much as a scratch on the glass or a scuff on either the gold or silver that decorated either end. But what surprised him even more, as he up-ended it, was that the sand was slowly and inexorably going from one side to another.

"Professor?" Harry said. "I think you ought to take a look at this."

"What?" Snape snatched the hourglass from Harry's hand, and saw the sand slowly trickling down from the silver end to the gold end. Then he turned it upside down as Harry had, and his eyes narrowed as he watched the sand continue to move from the silver end to the gold end. Carefully, he set it down on the floor.

"I would say we have about an hour," Snape said, calmly tucking his hands around his elbows as he leaned back against the wall.

"Until what?" Harry asked even though he was pretty sure of the answer already.

"Until they try to kill us."

~*~*~*~*~

Snape stared, transfixed, as the sand moved from the silver end to the gold end. He imagined that for every second that went by, there was a corresponding grain of sand.

"You could at least try to come up with some solutions," Harry muttered as he paced across the room.

Snape looked up as Harry passed by. "Let's see," he said, and began ticking off points on his fingers, "we don't know where we are, but we do know we are locked in here. There seems to be some sort of charm on this place, similar to the one at Hogwarts, making Apparating impossible. We can only guess it's Voldemort who is behind this - do stop pacing Potter; you're making me dizzy - and we have no idea how many Death Eaters he has with him." He paused, and then added, "and we seem to have misplaced our wands."

Harry stopped pacing long enough to glare at Snape for daring to be rational. "Shut up and let me think, will you?"

Snape sighed, and gracefully stood. He stepped in front of Harry, and placed a hand on either of the boy's shoulders. "Listen," he said, "there is no planning for the unknown. The best we can do right now is conserve our energy, and try to fight our way free when they finally come for us. It's our only chance at survival, and I would think you know by now that panic is not going to help us."

It was Harry's turn to sigh this time, and he did as he turned away from Snape's attempt at comfort. He just felt so helpless, and did not just want to bide his time in the hopes that the cavalry would arrive. Then again, he would have no chance to make it to freedom if he wore himself out in the inevitable waiting.

"You're right," he muttered, and sat beside the hourglass.

Snape gaped at Harry for a few moments, and then summoned up a ghost of a smirk. "I do believe that's the first time you have said that to me, Mr. Potter," he said, and then resumed his seat on the other side of the steady timepiece.

~*~*~*~*~

There was only the smallest of handful's worth of sand left on the silver end of the hourglass when the Death Eaters came.

Harry and Snape stood when they heard the door open; they were prepared to physically fight their way free if necessary. But they were unprepared for the actual size of the group of black figures that swarmed into the mausoleum. There were so many of them that the room seemed to shrink around them, making it slightly harder to breathe.

Teacher and student tensed to run, but held back the urge when they realized they were surrounded by more than a dozen Death Eaters.

"Just…" Snape whispered from behind Harry. "Just wait."

A cold, familiar laugh that Harry knew well filled the stone room. "Really, Severus?" Lucius Malfoy drawled. "What is it that you are waiting for?"

Snape said nothing.

"I thought so." Again that horrible laugh that his son was working on perfecting. "Now if you both would be so kind as to follow me. The Dark Lord is ready to… see you now."

Harry clenched his hands into fists as he and Snape were herded out into the night at wand point, and realized he held the hourglass. He gripped it tighter, wondering if he could use it in any way that might improve his situation.

Harry's mind was frustratingly blank as he was marched across a small cemetery that he had been unable to forget since the end of his Fourth Year at school. The Death Eater walking next to Harry stumbled over a bit of broken headstone, and cursed softly in a vaguely familiar voice. They went further back than Harry had been that night three years before, and the two captives were led up a small hill to a conveniently dense stand of trees that formed a dark, private circle.

The Death Eaters filed in and formed a shoulder-to-shoulder perimeter that pushed Harry and Snape into the center. They didn't have to look far to find Voldemort.

The Dark Lord sat on an enormous chair that could easily have been considered a throne but for the lack of gilt on the carved wood. Skulls and serpents formed the legs, arms and back of the chair, enchanted just enough for the serpents to slither between their carved obstacles. Voldemort gripped the arms of his throne with long, white fingers as he leaned forward, leering.

"As Muggles say," he hissed, "life is good. I am presented not only with the Boy Who Will Not Die, but also with a filthy traitor. I am most pleased."

A ripple of released breaths went through the assembled Death Eaters; their master pleased was infinitely better than their master displeased.

"I had planned such a lovely lesson for you, boy," Voldemort said, his red eyes burning into Harry. "But being as you have such a resourceful companion in this filthy spy here, I think we should dispense with the pleasantries. Wouldn't you agree?"

Harry was incapable of responding. All he could think was, I can't believe I'm going to die like this. Why can't I think of anything? I've survived this madman before; I must do it again.

"If you want to kill someone," Snape said in an almost bored voice, "kill me. That way you can have your fun and Nagini can eat too."

Voldemort laughed; high-pitched and tuneless, it was a sound utterly void of mirth. "How very noble of you, Severus," he said making Snape's name sound as though it were parseltongue. "But I think I have learned the dangers of not taking opportunities when they present themselves. Ligare!"

He made a sweeping motion with his wand, and suddenly Harry and Snape were standing back to back, unable to separate. Harry tried to shift as he felt the hourglass digging into the small of his back, still clenched in the hand that was also trapped between his body and that of his teacher.

Voldemort rose from his wooden throne, and glided over to his captives. He barely spared a glance for Snape, aside from a muttered promise of vengeance. Instead, all of his attention was focused in on Harry, as though he could kill the boy without so much as uttering a single sound. The wait seemed interminable to Harry, although he was sure it was only a matter of seconds that he forgot to breathe as he prayed to no one in particular that Voldemort would just get on with it.

"You have been a thorn in my side," the Dark Lord hissed, his breath cool and smelling of freshly dug earth, "since before you were born. I tried to remove you as an infant, but your stupid cow of a mother had to get in the way."

"Not my fault you have lousy aim," Harry spat, forcing his eyes to meet Voldemort's evil gaze.

Instead of losing his temper, as he would have once, Voldemort merely smiled at Harry's typically Gryffindorish bravery.

"No," he said so quietly that Harry had to strain to hear. "The only one to blame here is me. I haven't been learning from my mistakes, as I ought. But that is all in the past now. A past I have taken my lessons from."

Voldemort stepped back then, and raised his wand, and pointed it at Harry and Snape. "The time for talking has ended," he declared. "In fact, your time has ended. Plenus Orcus!"

An enormous ball of blue-black energy sprouted from the tip of his wand, and slammed through Harry and Snape at the same time. Harry noted a strange, numb sensation speeding through his body, and then everything went black as their corpses fell to the dirt.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry had always pictured the afterlife as having lots of sunlight, an enormous Quidditch pitch, and his parents waving to him.

Which is why he was so confused as to why everything was so dark, and why his head hurt so bloody much. Then he figured he must have gone the other way.

"Well," a smooth, familiar voice very close to his ear suddenly said, "this is rather familiar."

Snape? Now Harry was certain he was in Hell. He must have said as much aloud, because Snape laughed dryly behind him.

"No, Mr. Potter. You are most certainly alive. Although if you do not get off of my lap, I may lose all use of my legs."

There was something a little too familiar about Snape's words, and Harry opened his eyes at last.

"Bugger," he said, and crawled away from his professor. Snape arched an eyebrow at Harry's language, but said nothing as he reached behind his back, pulled out the hourglass, and looked at it.

The nearly full silver side was cheerfully draining to the gold side.

Snape sighed. "I thought as much," he said, and set the hourglass down on the marble floor.

"What?" Harry demanded as his headache continued to vie for his attention.

"For some unknown reason, Voldemort, he who was just telling us how bloody brilliant he is, has used a timeturner as a portkey."

"But why? And don't you have to actually activate a timeturner for it to work?"

"One would assume that Voldemort has received a rather bad bit of advice. Most likely from Dumbledore's current spy," Snape contemplated aloud. "But as for the complex workings of timeturners, I am far from an expert. You seem to know as much about them as I do, thanks to Miss Granger's experimental use of one several years back."

Harry gaped at Snape. "How did you…?" he half-asked.

Snape snorted. "The young really do think that their elders are completely oblivious, don't they?"

Harry said nothing, deciding that this would be one of those times he had heard about when staying silent was his best option.

"Honestly, Mr. Potter," Snape continued, not really expecting an answer anyway, "the entire faculty knew."

Harry decided that it would be a marvelous idea to pretend the previous exchange had not happened, even as he wondered what else the staff at Hogwarts knew.

"I wonder where our wands and my glasses have got to?" he said more to himself than to Snape, who gave an exasperated huff.

"Now you wonder about that?" he said, shaking his head. "With instincts like that, it is remarkable that you're still alive."

"Isn't it though?"

Snape contemplated ignoring Harry entirely. "At the time that this... portkey was activated," he finally said, "neither one of us was paying much attention to how tightly we gripped our wands. It is most likely they are currently laying on the Quidditch pitch, waiting to be trampled by a herd of First Years."

"Oh. So it's my fault, is it?"

"At the risk of going out on a limb, I would have to say yes."

~*~*~*~*~

Harry allowed himself to be led across the cemetery to the waiting stand of trees. He and Snape had decided it would be best if he continued to carry the timeturner with them each time, so he had it clutched and hidden within the folds of his robe. They said nothing to each other, biding their time until they could act. The Death Eater beside him stumbled and cursed again, and Harry found himself trying to place the voice that he simply knew from somewhere even as he fought an insane urge to catch the man.

Once inside the circle, Harry and Snape waited as the Death Eaters took their places. As Voldemort opened his mouth to gloat, teacher and student suddenly broke into a run. Their target was the smallest of the Death Eaters, the one who stumbled. They were going to rush him as one, and then keep running until they could find somewhere to hide until daybreak.

"Stupefy! Stupefy!" Twin beams of red light shot across the clearing, slamming into Harry and Snape's backs a bare instant before they would have reached their target.

"Ligare!" They were bound together once more, completely aware, but unable to so much as spit in contempt at their murderer.

Not again, Harry found himself thinking as they were hit by the blue black energy.

~*~*~*~*~

"This is really starting to get old," Harry said as he slid off of Snape's lap, eyes still closed as he tried to will his headache away.

Snape only grunted in agreement as he once again removed the timeturner from behind him.

"I wonder how long we're going to be stuck in this loop," Harry thought out loud.

Snape grunted.

"When we get it right, I suppose," Harry answered his own question. "But I wonder what it is we're supposed to be getting right in the first place?"

Snape grunted.

"You're terrifically talkative this go-round," Harry commented, expecting another grunt.

"You seem to have enough to say for the both of us," Snape finally said. "I thought I'd save myself from having yet another painfully pointless conversation with you. It seems my efforts were in vain."

Harry resisted the urge to hit his professor right on the end of his big nose. Instead, he grunted. Suddenly in a completely foul mood, Harry snatched the timeturner from Snape's hand.

"I am so sick of this!" he growled, brought his arm back, and threw this bloody timeturner across the room.

Just before it made contact and shattered, Snape very calmly said, "I don't think-"

~*~*~*~*~

Harry opened his eyes, groaning at his so recently renewed headache.

"-That is such a good idea," Snape finished from behind him.

Harry cursed, and rolled away.

~*~*~*~*~

Voldemort leered at his captives from his perch on what Harry was beginning to recognize as the tackiest prop he had ever seen outside of one of those low-budget Muggle horror movies. The Dark Lord smiled thinly, lips stretching across his barely human face.

"I am presented with not only The Boy Who Will Not Die, but with a filthy traitor as well," he said. "I am most pleased."

"Well, I'm happy you're happy," Harry said, wondering if the sound he heard was a Death Eater having some sort of fit, or Snape snorting.

Voldemort looked taken aback. "Has that fool Dumbledore managed to rid you of all common sense, boy? Certainly you know you should be begging for a mercifully quick death by now."

"I like it, I love it," Harry muttered. "I want some more of it."

This time he was sure it was Snape.

"You find this funny, Severus?" Voldemort rounded on the former spy. "Well, why don't we see how funny it is when I give you a full punishment."

Snape blanched, but kept his gaze level. "That's fine with me," he said. "And while you're doing that, Harry here can slip away."

Voldemort's white skin turned blotchy with livid red patches on his cheeks, neck, and forehead. "For the love of…" he stammered, and pushed Snape into Harry. "Plenus Orcus!"

~*~*~*~*~

"You called me Harry."

Those were the first words out of Harry's mouth as he extricated himself from Snape's lap.

"Did I?" Snape mused. "A slip of the tongue."

"You've never called me Harry before."

"I fail to see the importance of this conversation, Harry."

Harry had no response. He was trying to understand why he felt better about the entire ridiculous situation, simply because Snape had called him by his given name. Instead, he foundered about for a change of subject.

"What did Voldemort mean?" Harry asked. "About full punishment?"

"The usual," Snape replied, avoiding Harry's gaze. "Spankings and time outs."

Harry suppressed a laugh at a sudden image of Snape in a sailor's uniform, sitting in a corner, writing I must not spy on my Master on a roll of parchment. Snape gently kicked the timeturner across the room, watching it roll over to the far wall.

"Really," Harry said, and Snape sighed. "What did he mean?"

"I'm sure you don't actually want to know," Snape said darkly.

"If that were so, why would I ask?" Harry countered. "Come on, Professor. If we're going to be stuck in this, we might as well get to know each other."

Snape snorted, conveying the general thought that he did not want to get to know Harry any better. In fact, he leaned back against the wall, and drew up his knees to rest his forearms there. His head tilted down ever so slightly, bringing his long, greasy hair forward to cover his face. And then, much to Harry's surprise, he began to speak.

"A full punishment," he said, his voice low and halting, "begins with the Cruciatus curse, and gets worse from there. At first, all the victim knows is his pain, his helplessness. Then, as the torturers get into their jobs, the victim is stripped of his dignity. Small shallow cuts are always recommended; easy to add caustic agents to, they bleed nicely, cause stinging pain, and are not likely to kill too quickly as the victim lays there frozen, unable to beg for mercy."

Harry held his breath, envisioning every physical injustice he had ever suffered compounded by the strength of Voldemort's wrath.

"Once the outside of the body has been sufficiently played with and beaten down, Voldemort then takes away any remaining pride or sanity the victim has left before finally leaving him to hopefully bleed to death."

"How?" Harry's own voice sounded strange to his ears.

"You do know what rape is, don't you?"

Harry opened his mouth to say something, anything, and then snapped it shut when he realized the only way Snape could have known in such a detailed manner what a full punishment was. He shuddered silently, but it was enough to draw Snape's black gaze.

He laughed harshly. "The follies of youth become the regrets of old age. Remember that, Harry, if we ever get out of here."

~*~*~*~*~

Snape came to awareness immediately, just as he had the first time. Harry was squirming off his lap, and through a haze that was not entirely related to the sudden restart of the time loop, Snape wondered how it was that he had managed to land with a lapfull of student after coming through with the portkey. Or how he had managed to get said portkey jammed between his hip and his tailbone. At least it distracted him from the fact that Harry seemed incapable of extricating himself without rubbing Snape in a way that would be considered the right way if Harry weren't his teenaged student.

Harry had been very quiet through most of the last turn, as though something was weighing heavily on his mind. Most likely it had something to do with Snape all but admitting to participation in torture and rape. And it inexplicably bothered Snape that he might have managed to disgust Harry so thoroughly that he couldn't even talk to him.

"I've been thinking about what you said," Harry said suddenly, leaning back against the wall. "About youth and old age. And… well, I'm sorry my father was such a prat."

Snapped from his contemplation, Snape glared at him. By tacit agreement, neither had mentioned Harry's snooping in the Pensieve during his fifth year.

"I am," Harry insisted. "After seeing what I saw," he had the graces to look ashamed, "all I wanted to do was forget I had ever seen it. I'd always heard what a great man he was, and then I found out he was nothing more than a conceited bully when he was my age."

Snape nodded in cautious agreement with Harry's assessment of James Potter; not quite sure he was going to like where this was going.

"I tried to talk to Sirius about it," Harry continued, finding the fabric of his robes to be quite fascinating. "He didn't understand why it upset me so much. He tried to rationalize it away, but…" he trailed off, not really sure how to express what he was thinking.

"But he'd never been on the receiving end of such childish behavior," Snape finally spoke, finishing Harry's thought. "How could he understand that what he had done was not considered marvelously amusing to all?" he added quietly. There had been a lot of time for Snape to think over the years. It didn't mean that he had forgiven the Marauders for the way they had treated him those many years before, but at least he had some understanding with an adult perspective.

"I understand, though," Harry said, so quietly that Snape almost missed it. He turned to look at the boy, and saw a much older expression than any child should wear.

"I'm sure you do, Harry."

There was a long moment of silence as they looked at each other, and then Harry looked away with a sigh.

"I'm knackerd," he said. "Do you think we can sit this one out?"

Snape found himself wanting to chuckle. "No, I don't think that is an option," he said. "But why don't you take a nap? I'll wake you when it's time."

Harry smiled gratefully, and lay down on the floor. First he tried his back, then his left side, then his right side. He sighed, and tried his back again.

"For Merlin's sake," Snape finally said, a ghost of a smile gracing his face, "come here, Harry." He patted his right knee, and extended his leg. Harry looked doubtful. "I won't bite," Snape promised.

Harry laughed uncomfortably, but slid over to rest his cheek on his Professor's knee, facing away. After a few tense minutes, he began to relax, and his breathing slowed.

"Thank you," Harry said softly. "I'm glad you're here."

Snape said nothing; he was actually at a loss. No one had ever been genuinely grateful for his presence in so long; he had almost forgotten what it felt like to be around someone who wanted nothing more than his company. Students wanted his knowledge, colleagues wanted his potions, and Dumbledore… Dumbledore was a wonderful friend, but sometimes it felt like the only times he wanted to see Snape was when Harry needed something, or the Order had important business.

Snape looked down at the now sleeping boy. No, Harry was not a boy, he corrected himself; he had not been a boy since the day he witnessed that Hufflepuff's murder. Snape knew all too well how something like that could destroy any semblance of childhood. Harry shifted, and a grimace wrinkled his face as though he could sense Snape's thoughts.

Before he could stop himself, Snape was smoothing the young man's hair, trying to ease his dreams. Gradually, the unpleasant expression passed, and Harry smiled ever so slightly. His face had lost much of the soft roundness of youth, and had given way to the straight, firm lines of adulthood. In fact, the only thing left on Harry's face that had much softness, was his mouth. His lips were parted somewhat in sleep, but they still looked soft and full.

Realizing he had been spending much more time contemplating Harry's mouth than he should have, Snape snatched his hand back before he gave in to the urge to feel how soft the young man's mouth really was. Tucking his hands under his arms, Snape restrained himself to only look.

Almost seven full years of Quidditch had honed Harry's body into a firm, sinewy, and graceful form. Even the voluminous Hogwarts robes could do nothing to hide his height that was only a few inches shorter than Snape, or the broad shoulders that left boys as well as girls across the school nearly swooning in his wake.

Harry had certainly grown up a lot over the years.

But what Snape found himself thinking about were the more subtle changes that Harry had undergone. While he could still be angered too easily with stinging comments about his parents, he was much slower to resort to violence as a response. Instead he used a remarkably sharp mind and a sometimes-dry humor to disarm his opponents more often than not. Still too impetuous for his own good at times, Snape had been relieved to actually once hear Harry's voice agreeing with Granger that they ought to plan things a bit more carefully. Of course, they were planning how to aid and abet some sort of unlawful activity at the time; but they were only teenagers after all.

To be perfectly honest with himself, Snape grudgingly admitted, Harry had become the kind of person that anyone could spend hours upon hours with, without wanting to bash one's head in on the black marble wall. Even if it was the same hour, over and over again, Snape knew that having Harry with him was the only thing that was keeping him sane throughout this futile monotony.

Snape looked over at the hourglass, and realized that he had spent more than half an hour staring at and contemplating Harry. Grateful that no one ever need know about such a blatantly human act, he gently shook Harry's shoulder.

"Harry," he said. "It's time."

Harry groaned irritably, and opened his eyes. He looked up at Snape and smiled, suddenly shy. His green eyes were still clouded with sleep, but they seemed almost luminescent to the man above him.

"Did I snore?"

"No," Snape laughed. "But I think you might have drooled a bit."

Harry's eyes widened, and his hand flew to touch the spot just above Snape's knee. He laughed an instant later, missing the sudden in-drawn breath from the older man.

"Very funny, Professor." Harry sat up, grinning.

"Severus." His given name flew past Snape's lips on a sudden impulse. No going back now, he thought.

"I beg your pardon?"

"My name is Severus."

"Fine. Very funny... Severus."

Snape realized he enjoyed hearing his name spoken by this young man he was beginning to consider his friend, and smiled. Harry looked startled by the unusual expression on his face, and that only made Snape smile more broadly.

~*~*~*~*~

They were led across the cemetery they knew so well that they had no real need to watch their steps. Harry looked over at Snape - now Severus - and grinned.

"So," he said conversationally, "what are you doing later?"

The Death Eater walking beside Harry tripped in apparent surprise, and then stumbled over the broken stone, shooting Harry a look that was utterly unreadable because of his mask.

Severus grinned back. "I was thinking about just sitting down and having a conversation with a friend," he said casually. "It's simply been ages since I've had the time. You?"

Harry laughed, even as his mind repeatedly pointed out that Severus had just called him friend.

"I would be more concerned about the here and now," Malfoy said, not bothering to turn around as they reached the familiar stand of trees. "Especially since there won't be a later for either of you."

"That is what we're talking about," Harry cheerfully pointed out. Then, for good measure, he added, "Stupid git."

Malfoy trembled with rage, and halted the procession. Rounding on Harry, he came bare inches away. Harry saw his gray eyes glittering dangerously through the slits in his mask, and shivered involuntarily.

"That's right, Potter," Malfoy whispered, and Harry could imagine the cruel smile that was hidden, "you should be afraid. And do you know why? Because you're going to die tonight."

Harry fought back a sudden urge to whine like a child given leftovers for the third time in a week. He was mostly certain he would be able to anger Malfoy into killing him right on the spot, but he didn't want to take action without discussing it with Severus, first.

Taking Harry's silence as suitably cowed submission; Malfoy turned back around, and led them into the circle.

Once everyone was in their usual positions, Harry and Snape turned to Voldemort, their shoulders touching. Voldemort smiled.

"As Muggles say," Voldemort began.

"Let me guess," Harry interrupted. "Life is good?"

Voldemort's gaze snapped to the one who dared to somehow steal the moment from him - his greatest moment.

"Well, not only did he get you, Harry," Severus said, "but me as well. Boy Who Will Not Die, and the traitor he has been wanting to kill for years now."

"Yes, but it's too bad he can't take his time killing us," Harry commented, managing to look rather disappointed at the thought. "After all, that leaves too many possibilities for escape and rescue."

The Death Eaters were holding their breaths as one. No one dared to speak around the Dark Lord like this - no one.

"But what I want to know," Harry continued, "Is why he doesn't just Avada Kedavra us? Why use this Plenus Orcus thing?"

"ENOUGH!" Voldemort bellowed, and stood. "You anger me with this pitiful stalling, but I will answer your question: Because. I. Learn. From. My. Mistakes."

As Voldemort lifted his wand, Severus turned to Harry, and smiled. "By the by," he said, "I'm glad you're here, too."

~*~*~*~*~

Harry opened his eyes immediately, ignoring the ritual headache.

"Really?" he asked, turning in Severus' lap to make eye contact.

Severus grunted when Harry's hip made contact with a rather treasured part of him. "Well, not here exactly," he said, indicating his lap. "But generally speaking? Yes."

Harry smiled, and for some inexplicable reason wanted to hug Severus. Instead, he climbed off his friend's lap, and sat next to him. Severus, for his part, was resisting a sudden urge to pull Harry back onto his lap and kiss him senseless.

I must be going mad, he thought, shaking his head.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," Severus said. "I was just remembering how Voldemort looks with that vein throbbing along his temple. Did you practice at antagonizing people, or is it a natural talent?"

"I suppose I was born this way," Harry laughed. "But you brought it out in me."

Severus groaned, and gently knocked the back of his head against the wall.

"So it's my fault then?" he asked, consciously mimicking Harry.

"At the risk of going out on a limb," Harry countered, shaking with repressed laughter; "I would have to say yes.

"You are very lucky that I do not have my wand."

"Why?"

"Because I am suddenly possessed with a urge to hex you."

~*~*~*~*~

"Severus?"

"Mm?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"I believe you just have."

"Oh. Yes," Harry said and fidgeted. Severus turned to look at the young man sitting beside him. "Well... what I wanted to know is, what's sex like?"

Severus had long ago decided he had lost the capacity for shock. But Harry's question made his heart stop beating for a solid three seconds before starting back up, double time.

"I beg your pardon, Harry?" There, that sounded nice and calm. After all, he must have misheard him.

"What's sex like?"

No. He heard just fine.

"Ah, well..." He honestly had no idea what to say. At a loss for words for the first time in nearly his entire adult life, Severus could only look at Harry with poorly disguised surprise.

"It's just," Harry rushed on. "It's just it seems to be such a tremendously big deal with everyone, including Ron and Hermione. They can't seem to go a few hours without sneaking off to snog. And I just don't get it."

"Harry," Severus replied as gently as he could. "I really don't see why you're asking me this. If Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have such an intimate knowledge of this, you should ask one of them."

"Well, they're not here, now are they?" Harry snapped back. "Sorry," he immediately added. "But they aren't here, and you and I are friends now, right?"

Severus grunted. He knew when he had called Harry 'friend' he was going to regret it later, but he had no idea it was going to come tied up with a sex talk.

"You have had sex, haven't you?"

"For Merlin's sake!" Severus exclaimed, looking up to the ceiling for guidance. "Of course I have, Harry. But that's not the point."

"You're right. So what's it like?"

Persistent little bugger, aren't you? Severus found himself thinking with a bit too much fondness than was usual for dealing with a student. But then again, it had been quite some time since he had had a friend, so perhaps this was normal.

"Listen, Harry," he finally said. "One day, after this is over, you're going to meet the right girl, and-"

"No, I won't."

"I'm sorry?"

"I won't meet 'the right girl,' as you put it."

"Does your hero complex extend to a tendency towards martyrism, as well? 'The right girl' does not necessarily mean your soul mate, or some other such nonsense. I just mean that you'll meet a girl with whom you'll be comfortable with enough to go about your explorations."

Harry snorted. "You don't listen very well; has anyone ever told you that?" He turned to face Severus fully. "I won't meet the right girl, because I. Don't. Like. Girls." He said it very slowly, enunciating each word clearly, since Severus had proven himself incapable of reading between the lines on this particular subject.

"Oh." It was all Severus could manage, because of the sudden race in his blood to reach one particular spot. A spot that had never been of much use in intelligent conversation.

"So?"

Severus groaned. Not only did he not want to be having this conversation with Harry; he most certainly did not want to be picturing all the wonderful and various sexual experiences that he could easily describe. Had in fact, when the occasion necessitated a bit of a filthy mouth.

"Harry," he said, and swallowed thickly before trying again. "Harry, sex isn't something that can be easily described; it can be pleasurable, it can be painful. It can be empty, or, if you're lucky enough, deeply meaningful."

"Is it..." Harry bit his lower lip, and Severus began mentally beating himself for wanting to lick away that tiny hurt. "Is it fun?"

Is it fun? Oh Merlin, he's trying to kill me!

"Harry, I am not continuing this conversation. I shouldn't have let it begin in the first place," he added.

Harry sighed, and turned back to lean against the wall. He was remarkably silent for a while, and Severus began to actually believe that Harry had listened to him, and had dropped the subject.

"What about you, Severus?"

"What about me?" he asked back, knowing it was a vain hope that Harry was talking about something else. The persistence that had given Severus fond feelings before was now just giving him an intolerable case of heartburn.

"Do you like girls?"

Severus had never been so relieved in all his life as when the Death Eaters chose that moment to arrive. Right on time.

~*~*~*~*~

"Come on, Malfoy!" Harry taunted. "Do you really want your master to have all the fun?"

Severus sighed. He really didn't see how provoking Lucius Malfoy would help their situation any, but at the very least he had the opportunity to watch one of his enemies develop a fatal aneurysm from pure anger.

Malfoy ripped his hood off, his handsome face contorted in an evil rage. "I will get all the 'fun' I could possibly ever want, just from watching you die."

"Really?" Harry kept pushing. "That's odd."

"What do you mean, you insolent boy?"

"Well," Harry said with a deceptively innocent face, "Draco's more of a doer, if you know what I mean." The short Death Eater who stumbled suddenly gasped. "He did this boy, he did that boy. Actually, he did half of Slytherin before moving on to true love with a nice boy from Hufflepuff." None of it was true of course; Harry just wanted to see what would happen if he pushed that particular button.

Malfoy's face turned a violent shade of purple red, and Harry wondered how much more it would take for the insufferable dandy's hair to simply catch fire.

"Why you little-" Malfoy raised his wand to curse Harry into oblivion, when suddenly the short Death Eater stepped forward.

"Father, don't!" Draco Malfoy said. "He's trying to make you kill him."

"Then I shall oblige him."

"And risk angering the Dark Lord? Killing Potter when he's off somewhere else is one thing, but snatching him out from under our Lord's nose is another matter entirely."

The elder Malfoy glared at his son for daring to impose rational thinking, but lowered his wand.

"On we go then," he said, and spun on his heel.

~*~*~*~*~

"You didn't answer my question," Harry said the moment he came to. He wasn't sure, but either his headache was getting better, or he was getting used to it. Either way, he had more than enough brainpower to concentrate on forcing an answer out of Severus.

"And which question would that be, Harry? You seem to have quite a few of them."

Harry turned around to straddle Severus' lap. He was determined to make the older man stay where he was until he answered.

"Do you like girls?" he asked, locking his green eyes with Severus' black ones. Actually, they weren't black; they were an impossibly dark brown, very nearly black and difficult to distinguish from Severus' dilated pupils. Suddenly, he realized his professor appeared to be having a difficult time at breathing.

"All right there?" Harry asked, concerned. He shifted closer to get a better look, but froze when he felt a growing hardness press against the inside of his leg.

"Harry." More of a whisper than anything else, Harry still shivered at the unfamiliar tone in Severus' voice. "Harry, please get off me."

But Harry did not move away; sparks of electricity were shooting up his leg to pool low in his belly. It was alien and a bit frightening, but he couldn't seem to will himself to move away. If anything, he found himself moving closer. Details about Severus suddenly clarified in his mind; the strong, sharp line of his jaw, the thin upper lip that tempered the fullness of the one beneath it. If it were any other circumstance, Harry might have found it odd that he was suddenly attracted to the man in front of him, but instead he was overwhelmed with the need to touch; he lifted one of his hands.

His fingers trembled as they traced along the edge of Severus' jaw, leaving a blazing trail of sensation in their wake. When Severus' lips parted in sensory overload, Harry reached to explore the full lower lip.

Severus stopped Harry's hand the barest of moments before he could.

"Please don't," he said in a strangely rough voice.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, his own voice slightly breathless.

Severus closed his eyes, but still made no move to forcibly remove Harry. "This is," he said. "You are my student, and I am far too old to be…"

"What?"

"To be taking advantage of beautiful seventeen year-old virgins."

"You think I'm beautiful?"

"I may be a nasty recluse, but I'm not blind, Harry. Will you kindly get up now?"

"No."

"No? You do realize I can make you leave at any time, do you not?"

"Not until..." Harry paused, and shifted even closer. "Not until you kiss me." The last part was delivered very close to Severus' turned face.

Severus opened his eyes and his mouth to deliver a scathing reminder on their stations, but found himself frozen by the naked desire he saw in Harry's eyes; a desire he knew mirrored his own.

"I am your teacher," he said, trying to remind them both.

"Kiss me," Harry insisted. "Please."

"Since you asked so nicely," he said caustically.

Intending to merely brush his lips against Harry's and be done with it, as well as hopefully kill any chance that Harry might suddenly fancy him, Severus pressed their closed mouths together.

But at the first touch of Harry's soft mouth, all thoughts fled Severus' mind. All that mattered to him was to feel more of that willing mouth that parted instinctively under his. Severus' tongue snaked out, teasing at the space between Harry's lips, inviting Harry to join in and deepen the contact.

When Harry did, the taste of his hesitantly flickering tongue pulled a groan from deep within Severus. His arms came up, and pulled Harry tightly to him, one hand burrowing into the soft black hair that obligingly fell out of its constraints, and the other moving down to cup a firm, round arse.

Whimpering with a need he didn't fully understand, Harry curled one of his hands around Severus' neck, and the other over his shoulder. Without really knowing why, Harry rocked his hips forward, and moaned at the fiercely tingling sensation it brought to his crotch.

Severus shifted, trying to bring Harry even closer, and the timeturner behind him dug deeper into the small of his back. The discomfort penetrated Severus' foggy mind, and he brought his hands to Harry's shoulders. Reluctantly, he pushed the young man away from their kiss, and rested their foreheads together.

It was several seconds later before Severus could find words.

"Harry," he said, his voice reminding Harry of raw silk, "we have to stop this."

Harry trembled, but said nothing; his entire body was on fire, his pants growing more and more uncomfortably tight by the moment, and his brain had apparently gone on vacation. All he knew was that he wanted more. Instinctively, he rocked his hips forward again, seeking that tingling sensation again.

This time, he succeeded in rubbing his already rampant erection against Severus'. The delicious friction stole his breath away, and Harry widened his eyes in surprise. Severus arched up into Harry before he could stop himself, and leaned forward to capture Harry's mouth once more before he could think better of it.

Where the first kiss had been about touch and exploration, this one was pure need. Severus ground his mouth against Harry's, his tongue demanding entrance. Harry complied, and Severus set about learning the feel and taste of Harry's mouth, tracing the ridges on the roof of his mouth, and twirling with Harry's tongue.

Suddenly struck by inspiration, Harry began to suckle on Severus' tongue. The deep moan he received was encouragement enough, and Harry continued his ministrations until Severus pulled away, breaking the kiss.

"No." The word was forced out from between clenched teeth as Severus none too gently shoved Harry off of his lap.

It took Harry several minutes to recover, and when he did, cognitive functions came crashing back with a vengeance. I was kissing Severus! He thought, slightly dazed. Then he realized he hadn't been at all bothered about it being his Potions Master. In fact, he wanted to do it some more.

"Severus?" Harry's voice was still breathy, and it made Severus shiver.

"No, Harry," he responded, tightening his resolve. "We can not do that again. As I told you before, you are my student." And so much younger than me, he added silently.

"But I won't be for long," Harry reminded him. "And before you even say it, you are not old."

Severus sighed, and for a brief moment realized he did quite a lot of sighing when he was around Harry.

"Fine then," he said. "In two months, you graduate - providing we can get out of this bloody time loop - and if, at that point you want to, we can discuss this." At the very least, it will buy me some time, Snape reasoned.

Harry chewed on his kiss-swollen lip, and Severus suppressed a groan at the sight. "Will we still be friends until then?" he asked.

This time, Severus did groan, but not out of desire. It was such a simple, childish question, that it made the nasty voice in his head start chanting: You just snogged a teenager! You just snogged a teenager!

"Yes, Harry," he said wearily. "But don't expect your Potions marks to improve simply because I have detailed knowledge of the inside of your mouth."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Harry said, and reached around behind Severus. For a moment, he thought Harry was going to kiss him again. Instead, Harry pulled the forgotten timeturner out from behind Severus' back, removing the too-familiar discomfort. He saw and recognized the look in Severus' eye, and smiled knowingly.

Damn the boy for being a quick study! Severus thought, and scowled at Harry as best he could.

Harry laughed. "Just don't expect my Potions marks to improve, either," he said, bringing Severus back to their conversation. "Because all the attention I'll be paying you will have very little to do with wolfsbane, shrivelfigs, or shredded boomslang skin."

~*~*~*~*~

Severus had complete control of the situation.

He had managed to put Harry off for at least two months. Two months would give him plenty of time to formulate impenetrable arguments against himself. If Harry was still insane after the end of the term, Severus would have plenty of logical reasons to remind the young man that he most certainly would not want any kind of relationship with the greasy Potions Master. And, if all else failed, Severus had heard that Romania was nice that time of year.

The only problem was Harry himself. He seemed bound and determined to ignore any kind of personal space boundary, and was apparently compelled to cuddle against Severus in some way. Not wanting to upset the young man, Severus had allowed Harry to sit between his legs, and lean back against his chest. Of course, he was still working on how to make it Harry's fault that his arms had snuck up to wrap themselves around the Gryffindor's torso, but he would have that taken care of in no time.

Yes. Complete control, he taunted himself as he rested his cheek on the top of Harry's head.

Harry was looking at the timeturner again, watching the sand moved from the nearly empty silver side to the almost full gold side. It was as though this time he would be able to find something that their countless inspections had missed before. His brow was furrowed in concentration, and he was chewing on the inside of his lip in a slow, absent-minded manner.

"Harry, it's the same it's been every time," Severus reminded him.

"I know. I just... I just feel like this is the key. It is what got us in this mess in the first place."

"Actually, you are what got us in this mess."

"Oh, do shut up."

"Fine. Let me see that." He reached for and grasped the timeturner, but Harry held onto it for a moment longer. That's when it happened.

The timeturner glowed bright white for the few seconds until Severus let go in shock.

"Interesting," he said dryly.

"You have no idea." Harry held up the timeturner for Severus to see.

The silver side was half full again.

~*~*~*~*~

They marched across the cemetery, side by side. Harry clutched the timeturner in the hand closest to Severus, and prayed that his suddenly sweaty palms would not make him lose his grip. Without the timeturner, they would not be able to go through with their new plan.

They reached the section with the broken headstones, and Harry's hand darted out to touch the elbow of the Death Eater next to him.

"Do watch your step, Draco," he said quietly.

"What?" Draco hissed, and tripped over the piece of broken headstone.

"Never mind."

They continued on their way across the cemetery, and Harry and Severus restrained themselves from making what had become the habitual snarky comments. They needed to be unbound for their plan, and they had long since learned that angering Voldemort only wound up with the Ligare hex being cast.

Once the Death Eaters formed their circle, Harry and Severus turned to face Voldemort.

"Well," Voldemort said. "As the Muggles say, life is good."

"Not as good as you might think," Harry said, and turned to face Severus.

Harry already had hold of the gold end of the timeturner, and Severus grasped the silver end. It immediately began to glow with its bright white light, nearly blinding those within the circle.

"What are you doing?" Voldemort demanded. "Stupefy!"

A beam of red light shot from Voldemort's wand, but froze less than two feet away from the two men who stood with their eyes closed. The hex fizzled and disintegrated slowly.

Suddenly, Harry opened his eyes. "Severus," he whispered. "Do you feel that?"

"Yes," he whispered back, awe filling his voice as he met Harry's gaze. "It's time. Pure time."

Suddenly, the light coming from the timeturner intensified and solidified. It grew into a dome that encompassed the two men, and then simply kept growing, reaching out for Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

A few of the Death Eaters looked ready to run, but held their ground regardless; their Dark Lord would tell them when they could flee.

"Finite Incantatem!" Voldemort cried, trying one last time to stop what was inexplicably happening before him.

He could not Disapparate, thanks to the charms and wards he and his Death Eaters had covered the graveyard with. Instead, decided to simply run like a common Muggle. The dome began to buzz and hum like the chiming of a million clocks at once, the cacophonous sound holding his attention just long enough to make him pause before taking flight. When he did try to leave, he could not; his limbs felt as heavy as stone, and he could only move his eyes.

A frantic glance around showed sunlight rapidly filling the sky, and the shadows moving around the circle of trees. When the sun set and the moon rose all in a handful of seconds, Voldemort knew he had lost. Somewhere, on the edge of his awareness, he saw one of his followers manage to break free of the freeze that held everyone else, and had made a dash to leave the tree circle.

Voldemort cursed the traitor with breath that he suddenly could not draw.

Without warning, the chiming and ringing dome of blinding white fell silent. Not a single thing moved, and nothing made a sound. With a sound like a rapidly in drawn breath, the dome suddenly expanded to fill the entire stand of trees.

Then, with a deep, resonating toll, it was gone.

A calm filled the moonlit circle, broken only by the hoot of a distant owl. The occupants of the circle all stood frozen as statues. A gentle passing breeze ruffled the grass they stood on, but failed to draw their unblinking attention.

A shadowy figure entered the circle and removed his hood to reveal close-cropped white blond hair that shimmered in the moonlight. Draco walked over to the center where Harry and Severus stood with their gazes frozen together. Reaching under his robes, Draco withdrew two necklaces. He placed the silver one over Severus' neck, and the gold over Harry's.

"Tempus Fugit!" he cried, and brought his wand down in a slicing motion between the two.

Harry blinked three times in rapid succession, and smiled at Severus. Severus turned to see the others still frozen.

"Well," he said with a smirk, "this is different."

~*~*~*~*~

Ironically, while Harry and Severus had been living the same hour over and over again, the rest of the world only remarked the passage of a normal hour. But once they activated the timeturner, the few moments they experienced amounted to nearly a full day.

So it was only a few minutes after Draco woke Harry and Severus before the Aurors arrived to bundle off the still-frozen Death Eaters and Dark Lord. Wanting to avoid uncomfortable questions, Draco had slunk off into the shadows, promising that Dumbledore would explain everything - later.

Stunned, Harry stood to the side, as Voldemort's immobile form was levitated to a nearby portkey. It had just been so easy he couldn't quite bring himself to believe he had actually won. Gray-robed Aurors milled about the two men of the hour, offering congratulations and asking dozens of questions.

"Brilliant bit of magic there..."

"Guess that makes you the Teacher Who Lived!"

"How did you...?"

After a few too many hearty pats on the back, Harry began backing away from the commotion, feeling more than slightly uncomfortable with all the attention.

"I'd love to stay and chat," he said, "but I'm falling asleep on my feet."

"We do need your statement," a very large Auror whose name Harry had already forgotten reminded them.

"I know," Harry said. "But can it wait until tomorrow? We've been at this for so long I can hardly remember where my bed is at."

The Aurors were appropriately sympathetic; they wished Harry and Severus safe journey and pleasant dreams and a number of other well-meaning cliches, and helpfully directed them to a portkey that would return the two heroes to Hogwarts.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry and Severus appeared with a Bang! in the middle of Dumbledore's office. In a tangle of limbs and robes, they tumbled to the floor. Harry landed on top of Severus, and his robes had somehow managed to flip up and over his head.

"As amusing as I have found your clumsy ways in the past," Severus said, not entirely keeping a smile from his eyes, "I would much rather not become its victim in the present. Get. Off."

Harry smiled back, and silently kissed his Professor on the tip of his nose before making a great production of extricating himself. Unable to help noticing the hot, hard bulge between Severus' legs, Harry grinned wickedly as he made sure to drag his thigh over it very slowly.

Once they were disentangled, Harry and Severus looked up to see Dumbledore sitting at his desk. The ancient wizard appeared to be either choking on one of his candies, or making a poor effort at holding back laughter.

"Harry! Severus!" he finally said. "I'm so glad you're both here."

Severus stood, and made a great show of attempting to brush the hopeless wrinkles from his robes. He could only hope that the guilty flush on his cheeks could be taken as merely a reaction to other events that weren't quite so exciting as having a squirming Harry take advantage of his prone position.

Harry jumped up, and blushed as he ran a hand through his unruly hair. "Hullo, Professor Dumbledore," he said.

"Please, have a seat," Dumbledore gestured to the two chairs sitting opposite him. "Lemon drop?"

They sat, and Harry accepted one of the offered sweets. His glasses lay neatly folded on the desk next the bowl of treats, and Harry gratefully put them on. Severus merely raised an expectant eyebrow and folded his hands in his lap.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and smiled, looking very pleased with himself. "I must admit," he said, "I am rather surprised it took the both of you so long to figure it out."

"I beg your pardon?" Severus asked as Harry hastily chewed and swallowed the last of his candy.

"I would have thought," Dumbledore said, waving his hand vaguely, "that after the first two or three times, you would have realized what was going on. Instead I was… well, amused I suppose, that you took nearly two dozen times instead."

Harry coughed on the last bit of his lemon drop. "But... how do you know that, sir? Every time the loop restarted, Sev- Professor Snape and I were the only ones who remembered."

Dumbledore smiled gently. "Harry, time may fly, and time might crawl, but time borrowed must always be returned."

As Harry's brow furrowed in confusion, Severus' eyes widened in realization.

"Of course," he said more to himself than to the others. "Why didn't I see it before?"

"See what?

With a wave of his wand, Dumbledore summoned the timeturner. "This timeturner is no more an ordinary timeturner than it is a simple hourglass," he said. "It is a very old, very rare device known as a timereturner. There are precious few in known existence, and I was quite fortunate to come across this one in my youth.

"When we discovered that Voldemort was planning to make yet another attempt on your life, Harry, there was so little time. All we could think of was that we needed to borrow some time in order for you to find a way free. The timereturner was our best chance at that, and I'm quite pleased that we were right."

"We?" Harry asked. "Do you mean the Order?"

"In a way, yes. But it was Draco Malfoy and I who were left with the responsibility of finding you a way out of another hopeless situation. Young Draco is my current spy -I should say was, since you two have hopefully made such a need obsolete. When Voldemort decided to test Draco's abilities and loyalties by making him responsible for capturing you, I suggested he use the timereturner as a portkey. I also gave him the necklaces you both now wear - please keep them. They are made of the same materials as the hourglass, and can deflect and break the magic of the timereturner."

Harry reached up to touch the chain around his neck, and saw Severus do the same. On each chain, there hung a small hourglass that drained sand sensibly only from top to bottom.

"But how did you... And what about..." Harry didn't know which question to ask first.

"Once we entered the time loop," Severus explained with little patience, "we started the timereturner. When we thought we were activating the device, we were actually releasing the time it had been holding back for us. Twenty-four loops equaling twenty-four hours."

"Exactly." Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "Although it was rather unexpected to hear that everyone had been frozen in the release. That's the funny thing about time magic; you never know what will happen next. Fortunately, it gave us an abundance of time to locate the two of you using a Charting spell, and for the Aurors to arrive just as you finished. Rather convenient, if I do say so myself."

Harry sat back against his chair, trying to take it all in.

"Now, I would imagine the two of you are quite tired," Dumbledore said. "We can always talk more later."

Recognizing their dismissal, Harry and Severus stood to leave. They had nearly reached the door, when something occurred to Harry.

"Professor Dumbledore?" he asked. "What are they going to do with Voldemort?"

"Ah, yes. Well, do you remember how I said that time magic is quite tricky? Well, the Ministry is going to have to find some way to destroy Voldemort without undoing the spell, which should take quite some time. But don't worry; I have faith in them."

Harry thought that Dumbledore would probably have faith in Voldemort if the situation called for it, but for once said nothing. He smiled, and left the office.

The ride down the rotating staircase was silent between Harry and Severus, though they stood shoulder to shoulder. Together, they walked down the hallways until they stood where the foot of the stairs to Gryffindor Tower met the head of the stairs descending to the Slytherin Dungeons. The Great Hall was filled with the rest of the occupants of Hogwarts as they ate their dinner. The silence grew as they stood there, just looking at each other. Finally, Harry reached for Severus, pulling him close.

Severus was determined to resist; he wanted to prove that what happened before was a mistake, and that there really was no attraction between the two of them. After all, it made perfect sense.

Perfect sense, until Harry's tongue licked at Severus' lips.

With a growl, Severus returned the kiss with a ferocity that startled even him. He pulled Harry flush against his body, molding their planes and angles perfectly as their tongues began to do battle for control of the kiss.

Gradually, the intensity subsided, and the battle turned into stroking, then suction, and then Harry pulled back with a gentle nibble along Severus' bottom lip.

"Two more months," he whispered with a small smile, and then stepped back, and grinned at Severus. "G'night, Professor; I'm not all that hungry, so I'll be off to bed. See you in class tomorrow!"

Severus glared at Harry. "Goodnight, Mr. Potter," he returned. "And you had best be off before I start taking points for loitering in the halls."

Harry barely suppressed a laugh as he spun around and ran up the stairs taking them two at a time. He did not look back until he reached the top, and Severus was already gone from sight by then; so he did not see Severus touch his fingers to his lips, almost laugh, and then head down to the Dungeons with a smile on his face.

~~~fin~~~


End file.
